Galaxies Category Winner: M94: Deep Space Halo, Nicolas Outters

Galaxies Category Winner: M94: Deep Space Halo, Nicolas Outters

"This galaxy is beautiful with its halo of stars and the faint field of small galaxies within it. The process of taking this image was very complex, and the challenge was to try to show all the small galaxies in the background."—Nicolas Outters

"This is the Moon of my dreams! Craters overlap, butt against each other and extend to the horizon. As we can see in this lunar landscape, the southern region of our Moon always offers amazing views. In this image we can see a lot of big and spectacular impact craters, like Barocius, Baco, Cuvier, Lillius and Jacobi."—Jordi Delpeix Borrell

Galaxies Category Winner: M94: Deep Space Halo, Nicolas Outters

"This galaxy is beautiful with its halo of stars and the faint field of small galaxies within it. The process of taking this image was very complex, and the challenge was to try to show all the small galaxies in the background."—Nicolas Outters

"This is the Moon of my dreams! Craters overlap, butt against each other and extend to the horizon. As we can see in this lunar landscape, the southern region of our Moon always offers amazing views. In this image we can see a lot of big and spectacular impact craters, like Barocius, Baco, Cuvier, Lillius and Jacobi."—Jordi Delpeix Borrell

Jordi Delpeix Borrell

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Aurorae Category Winner: Twilight Aurora, György Soponyai

"On the evening of the total solar eclipse in Spitsbergen, around 9.30 p.m., a very impressive Aurora Borealis was visible. At this time, the Sun was shining nine degrees below the horizon – nautical twilight on the shore of the Greenland Sea. In this image the Adventtoppen Mountain (786 metres high) is illuminated by the western/north-western horizon from behind, while the foreground is painted orange by the lights of the nearby Longyearbyen Airport."—György Soponyai

György Soponyai

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Skyscapes Category Winner: Binary Haze, Ainsley Bennett

"On this particular morning I knew the Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were in close conjunction. I got up early before work and headed to an area of countryside that I thought would offer a suitable composition. On arrival, there was a thick layer of low-lying mist that I thought would hamper my images. To my surprise the mist added a new dimension by accentuating the brightness of the crescent Moon and Venus, making them look like glowing spheres. The resulting image looks like something from a science fiction movie."—Ainsley Bennett

"As the Sun began to rise, near-perfect conditions prevailed for this Saturn imaging session. Fine details are captured across the globe and ring system which is near to maximum tilt toward us. A variety of coloured bands and zones are seen within the atmosphere, along with various small storms. There were so many breathtaking views through the telescope that I was still observing when the Sun had risen!"—Damian Peach

Damian Peach

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Stars & Nebulae Category Winner: The Rainbow Star, Steve Brown

"Whenever I see Sirius in the night sky I always take a moment to enjoy the rapid cycle of colours it displays, especially when close to the horizon. Sirius is called the 'Rainbow Star', as its twinkling seems to go through every colour of the rainbow. Ever since I took up astrophotography I have searched for the best way to show these colours in a photograph. After some experimentation, I finally hit upon the idea of videoing the star deliberately out of focus. To create the final picture, I picked out the video frames that contained the most striking colours and put them together in this composite image."—Steve Brown

"As I live in a big city, I need darker skies. So during 2015 I attended my first astrophotography event, which is where I took this photo. The Large Magellanic Cloud is one of the jewels of the southern sky that can be seen with the unaided eye. It's a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, lying about 14,000 light years from us."—Carlos Fairbairn

Carlos Fairbairn

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Robotic Scope Category Winner: Iridis, Robert Smith

"This composite of two images compares slit-less spectroscopy of two well-known planetary nebulae, NGC 6543 (Cat's Eye Nebula) at the top, and NGC 6720 (M57 Ring Nebula) below. In a spectrograph the light is dispersed into its constituent wavelengths or colours. The particular wavelengths a nebula emits identify the gases of which it consists. What I love most about these images is that they allow us to see very familiar deep-sky objects in a different way."—Robert Smith

"On a clear night last November, I set up my camera on my front lawn. I honed in on the focus until the Moon appeared perfectly sharp. I put my camera into continuous firing mode and shot 70 frames in seven seconds. Taking the best 62 frames, I aligned and stacked them, then adjusted the wavelets to sharpen the image. I made the decision to invert the image to give it an extra 'pop'. What I really like about my lunar photograph is how it shows detail that many people normally find difficult to see, and it helps to highlight the complexity and beauty of the lunar surface."—Brendan Devine

Brendan Devine

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Our Sun and Overall Winner Category Winner: Baily's Beads, Yu Jun

"I took a series of photos of the 2016 total solar eclipse and stacked them to show the dramatic 'Baily's Beads' formation. Baily's Beads [named after English astronomer Francis Baily] occur as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. From Earth it seems like the sunlight around the edge of the Moon is broken into fragments because of the uneven lunar surface. This creates the illusion of a string of bright beads encircling the Moon."—Yu Jun